Make The Chatter White Noise!
Mar 25, 2024🎙️ Coach Corrinne Tarver was a very active child growing up. Gymnastics didn’t happen until later in life. She would use a church with make shift equipment to practice and then on to the YMCA. When it was time for her to go someplace else to continue to grow, she would train in Connecticut. Her Mom would arrange a cab to take her to the train then she took public transportation to her lessons. Gymnastics was her happy place and safe space!
🎙️ Corrinne wasn’t heavily recruited at first due to a miscommunication regarding her being a senior but everyone thinking she was a junior. Once colleges realized that she was in fact a senior she was already set on becoming a Georgia bulldog.
🎙️ Corrinne was the first gymnasts to be an active member of the US National team and go to college.
🎙️ Corrinne was so comfortable being in the white spaces that she wasn’t uncomfortable at the University of Georgia with all white teammates. It was a white basketball player that recommended that Corrinne should connect with more black students on campus.
🎙️ Time management, multitasking and rolling with the punches are a must.
🎙️ She is a goal setter. The goal was to win a NCAA all around title.
🎙️ When you set goals, you have something to work towards.
🎙️ This is what I want, this is what my goal is and I’m going to do what I know to do to get there she said.
🎙️ One of the reasons that Corrinne went to Fisk University to Coach was to open up doors for gymnasts of color that they wouldn’t ordinarily have had.
🎙️ A goal is something that you have to work for. A dream is something that you hope happens.
🎙️ Before coaching at Fisk, Corrinne thought she wanted to be a Sports Agent. She passed the NY State Bar. It was an intern position that would help her to realize it wasn’t what she thought it was going to be. It just wasn’t her.
🎙️ Coach Corrinne felt like the future of black gymnastics was on her shoulders being the first HBCU to offer gymnastics. Silencing all of the critics was challenging.
🎙️ She is still learning the best way to reach this generation since things are different now than when she was in college.
🎙️ Aspiring high school gymnasts should work on the following:
- Being comfortable in your own skin
- Make that skin armor
- Be realistic
- Ask questions if you’re not sure but be willing to accept the answer
- Don’t take the one answer as the God given truth
🎙️ Are you willing to walk through the open door even if it doesn’t lead to gymnastics?
🎙️ You will be fine when you make the chatter white noise.
🎙️ It’s Not Who You Know… It’s Who Knows You. Her advice for other coaches is to get to know people. Get to know people that have the ability to help you.
🎙️ As we put a bow on the conversation, Coach Corrinne urges you to:
- Figure out what it is you really want to do
- What do you need to do to get to that goal or dream?
- Ask yourself, are you willing to do what it takes to get there?
- Find someone that you can rely on
- Step outside your comfort zone and find people to help
🎙️ They may not get you to the top but they can get you one step higher! Find those people!
